Abstract:
Industrial waste salts with organic impurities require eco-friendly treatment. Conventional pyrolysis relies on fossil fuels, however, concentrated solar energy offers a clean alternative. This study proposes a novel solar moving-bed pyrolysis reactor for purifying waste salt that combines a planar mirror with a parabolic trough concentrator to enable continuous solar irradiation of a vertical moving-bed reactor. The reactor effectively pyrolyzes organic impurities, achieving a final residual ratio below 0.02, while reactor rotation reduces the circumferential temperature difference to 50 K. Seasonal analysis determined optimal flow rates, resulting in a daily processing capacity of 82.66 kg/d in summer 96 % higher than in winter (42.17 kg/d). Furthermore, A 200 K increase in inlet temperature raised daily capacity by 39.06 %; accordingly, an integrated waste heat recovery system was designed and optimized, further enhancing the daily capacity by up to 40.63 %. This work demonstrates the viability of solar-driven pyrolysis for waste salt purification and highlights the importance of operational optimization for industrial solar thermal applications.
Z.J. Dong, H. Ye, W.J. Yan, Y.B. Tao, Design and performance study on a novel solar moving-bed pyrolysis reactor for waste salt treatment, Energy Conversion and Management, Volume 348, Part C,
2026, 120748, ISSN 0196-8904, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2025.120748
